Not the comedy variety. This is serious.
Photo by Martin Widenka on Unsplash
Standing doesn't come naturally to most people.
I mean it does, in the human sense. Homo sapiens are the apes who stood up.
But from birth, we bipeds are constantly being taught to 'sit down'.
Sit down for meals. Sit down for study. Sit down for work. Sit down and shut up. We buy seats for events. We relax by sitting in front of the TV.
People have sitting rooms, not standing rooms.
So why bother standing?
Standing keeps your blood flow active. The heart has to work harder to pump blood around the body. Meaning more blood to the brain.
You're burning more calories this way too, and we could all do with more of that. Your spine is also naturally aligned (hopefully), so you are less likely to be constricting blood vessels in your spine with poor posture. And if you want to get all hippy about it, the natural energy between your crown and your sacrum is free to flow without interruption.
If you work in an industry that has daily 'stand-ups' - short catch-up meetings where everyone stands and says what they're currently up to - you'll know the benefit of standing. When there are chairs around, these supposedly brief updates turn into sluggish waffle sessions where the 'sitters' tend to talk for longer and are less focused. The energy slows in the group. And not just between their crowns and sacrums.
Quite simply, standing is good for faster thinking. And faster thinking means more ideas.
Many creative people feel the need to stand and pace when they're coming up with an idea. They've learned over time (probably without realising it) that it brings ideas - or the energy to power them - to the surface. It's as though if they chose to sit down, their energy would drain away, and the magic wouldn't happen.
Try it. Get up. Stand up. Think on your feet about your creative problem. Pace about a bit. Talk to yourself if that helps (no-one's looking, it's fine).
Dick Turpin was right all along: Stand...and deliver! Or was that Adam Ant?
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